From the category archives:

Budgeting

A lifetime of kid sports. Know what you’re paying for parents.

January 17, 2012

As a parent – or as someone who aspires to parenthood – you may be interested to know that in Canada the average cost of raising a child from infancy through high school is about $182,000. If you foot the bill for another two to four years of college or university for your child, you [...]

Read the full article →

Baby steps can lead to big savings.

January 12, 2012

Out with old man 2011 and in with 2012’s cute and cuddly baby wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and soothing with a pacifier. A good friend of mine recently welcomed a baby boy to her family. He is an adorable bundle of joy, cooing and sleepy-eyed while his parents shower him with admiration and loving [...]

Read the full article →

And on the 13th day – I got the bill. (sung to the tune of the 12 days of Christmas with apologies)

January 10, 2012

-And on the thirteenth day of Xmas, the mailman gave to me, a credit card bill for free . So Happy New Year! You thought that you recovered from your New Year’s hangover. Then you open your mail. Everything was good in December and then you decided that you would buy a few things. Besides [...]

Read the full article →

Christmas frenzy.

December 20, 2011

I found it rather coincidental that on the day I decided to start shopping (Black Friday), my Moneysense magazine came in the mail with a startling declaration. The editorial ,”Overtaking America”, stated that in the Credit Suisse 2011 Global Wealth Report that we are currently wealthier than the Americans. Apparently, our net worth median income [...]

Read the full article →

My dinner with Santa. An exclusive interview.

December 15, 2011

I would like to thank a colourful, wee elf named Undlin Neldth for arranging dinner last week between me and Father Christmas himself, St. Nicholas Claus (aka Santa). Undlin, who is in charge of Santa’s publicity department, recommended me to his boss for an interview after surfing the Net and chancing upon a blog I [...]

Read the full article →

La Grippe proof your budget.

November 22, 2011

This morning my sister called at 6.47 a.m. She and my nephew were both home because they were sick. She felt guilty for not being at work because apparently they’re understaffed as it is. My nephew felt badly for not being at school because it was pizza day and he had pinky sworn he would [...]

Read the full article →

Cracking the coupon code.

October 25, 2011

Everyone seems to have a system when it comes to shopping. Some have the swift skill of negotiating.  Others look for sales with flyers and stock up. Some have a shopping blowout at the dollar store. Some grumble under their collective breath about the state of prices at the supermarket, about the fact that everything [...]

Read the full article →

How much is that goblin in the window?

October 20, 2011

Carvers of pumpkins, makers of costumes, givers of treats – listen up. According to the National Retail Federation in the United States, Americans will spend $6.86 billion on Halloween this year. Extrapolate that to Canada – by a reduced factor of 10 – and we here in the great yellow, orange and rust-coloured north will [...]

Read the full article →

Santa never sleeps.

September 29, 2011

Sorry to bring this up but (achoo) cold, wind, sleet and snow will soon be upon us, and you know what that means – a rotund, white-bearded fellow in an outlandish red outfit will be crawling down chimneys to deliver gifts under evergreen trees in living rooms across the land. The old boy never sleeps. [...]

Read the full article →

Just making things HD Clear.

September 15, 2011

After one rainy long weekend of watching one too many episodes of TLC’s show “Hoarders” I decided it was about time my room went through a major cleansing. I got rid of most of my old stuff and I wanted something new. During my cleanup process I collected a lot of valuables that I could [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries